Man Jailed for Keeping Girl Captive

Published 8:00 pm, Monday, January 21, 2002

A Japanese court has sentenced a man to 14 years in prison for kidnapping a child and holding her captive in his bedroom for nine years.

Nobuyuki Sato, 39, had pleaded guilty to abducting the girl _ then 9 years old _ and holding her for nine years and two months. Hospital employees discovered her in Sato's home on Jan. 28, 2000.

The sentence was imposed Tuesday by Niigato district court presiding judge Isoo Sakaki

Court official Naoko Umetsu declined to discuss further details, but Kyodo news agency quoted Sakaki's ruling as calling the sentence a "severe punishment" imposed because Sato "deprived her of her adolescence, the most important phase of one's growth and she is still suffering from tremendous difficulties for going back to the society."

Kyodo said the court rejected defense lawyers' claims that Sato was mentally unstable when he committed the crime.

Sato forced the girl into his car as she was walking home from school on Nov. 13, 1990 in the city of Sanjo, about 140 miles northwest of Tokyo. He held her in his room on the second floor and threatened her with a knife. Later, she was too cowed to attempt an escape.

The girl has said she never ventured from the second floor of her captor's house. Sato's mother reportedly said she did not know about her son's captive. Sato was reported to be violent, and his mother was afraid to go up to the second floor.

The nationally circulated Yomiuri newspaper reported Tuesday that the girl, who is now 21, sometimes goes out shopping and chats with friends.

After Sato's arrest, local police were criticized for failing to investigate him in connection with the case even though he had been arrested in 1989 for trying to kidnap another girl and was on probation.

In February, 2000, Niigata police chief Koji Kobayashi resigned under fire for lying about how his department had discovered Sano. The police chief was accused of approving false reports that police had liberated Sano, when in fact she was discovered by hospital workers.